I am sure that just about everyone reading this has a clear memory of how they felt when first hearing the news about the horrific shootings at Columbine High School in April 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve of their fellow students and one teacher before turning the guns on themselves. What could make two young men commit such a violent, bloody act? Was it the result of bullying? Was Marilyn Manson to blame? How about video games and slasher movies? Maybe these simply were “bad kids” who could not be helped. All of these possibilities were discussed on talk shows and in news stories in the days and weeks that followed.

And, while we shared in the grief of the parents who lost children and wondered how we could go on if put in their shoes, what about the parents of Harris and Klebold? Of course, many of us wanted to know how a mother and father could not see the signs that something like this could happen. And, it raised the greater question of what connection there is between a violent killer and his genetics and upbringing.

One Response to Mother of Columbine Killer Wished for His Death

What I would have liked to see is the parent willing to examine themselves to see what role they played in such a horror. To wish her son dead is a horror in itself. For her to take no responsibility is as sad and disturbing and the event itself.